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• Algeria: women at war 1992
Shows the role of women in Algeria’s liberation struggle from the French. It then goes on to examine the position of women in that country under the FLN’s one party rule. It is a great work on the question of the balancing act between women’s liberation vs. national liberation.
(English - 52 minutes)
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• Back to Ararat 1988
Dir: Pea Holmquist
Honorable mention, American Film & Video Festival 1988
(English - 100 minutes)
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• Children of Chatila
Documentary about the lives of the children living in the South Lebanese refugee camp of Chatila, the sight of the 1981 Israeli sponsored massacres.
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• Destiny (Al-Maseer) 1997
Dir: Youssef Chahine
Starring: Nour al-Cherif, Laila Eloui, and Mohamad Mounir
A disciple of Averroes (Arab philosopher of the 12th century, known in Arabic as Ibn-Rushd) is burned at the stake for heresy, so his son Joseph travels to Andalusia to study under his father’s mentor. There he finds Averroes and his students clashing with forces of fundamentalism
embodied by a brainwashing cult.
(Arabic w/ English subtitles - 135 minutes)
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• Dupes (Al-Makhdu’un) 1972
Dir: Tawfiq Saleh
Starring: Mohammad Kheir, Helwani, Bassam Lutfi, Saleh Kholoki, Abdel Rahman el Rachi
Film based on one of the most famous Arabic novellas - Ghassan Kanafani’s Men in the Sun (Rijal fi-Shams)1962, about three Palestinian men who try to find a way to get smuggled in to Kuwait to find work. This film was one of the first to address the Palestinian issue.
(B&W - Arabic w/English subtitles - 107 minutes)
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• Frontiers of Dreams and Fear 2001
Dir: Mai Masri
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• Gaza ghetto: portrait of a Palestinian family, (1948-1984) 1985
Dir: Pea Holmquist
An account of the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip, from 1948-84, as seen through the eyes of one Palestinian family, residents of the Jabalia refugee camp. Includes interviews with General (now Prime Minister)Sharon and Binyamin Ben Eliezar.
(English - 82 minutes)
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• Good Kurds, bad Kurds 2000
Dir/Narr: Kevin McKiernan
McKiernan reports the story of the Kurds in Northern Iraq who rose against Saddam Hussein and received US support, and of the Kurds in Turkey whose armed insurrenction against Turkey was put down with American weapons. Delves into the history and politics of Kurdistan and into US
complicity in the human rights abuses.
(English - 79minutes)
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• Lines in the sand 1990
Dir: Yani Dainanos
Looks at the Gulf Crisis and the American bombing of Iraq. Reviews the history of colonialism and intervention in the Middle East, the importance of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and Pan-Arab determinatism and the human cost of the War. Features Eqbal Ahmad, Nubar Hovsepian, Saeb Erakat and Phyllis Bermis.
(English - 28 minutes)
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• Marriage in Galilee 1987
Dir: Michel Khleifi
International Critics Award, Cannes Film Festival 1987
Grand Prize, San Sebastian Film Festival 1987
A richly detailed allegory of marriage, tradition, and national identity, in which the only way a Palestinian village elder can hold his sons wedding is if he allows the local military governor of the occupying Israeli forces to attend the ceremony.
(Arabic & Hebrew w/English subtitles - 113 minutes)
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• Manufacturing the enemy 1990
Dir: Ludger Balant
Shows how racism is used, via the media, to dehumanize the enemy as demonstrated during the Persian Gulf crisis. Interviews Arab-Americans who were victimized by violence, by FBI crack-downs and racist hatred. Also looks at the Japanese internment camps and their legacy.
(English - 28 minutes)
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• The Nights of the Jackal (Layali Ibn Awa) 1989
Dir: Abdulatif Abdulhamid
Starring: Ashad Feddah, Bassam Koussa, Najah Abdallah
Set in Syria, the movie looks at the family of Abu Kamel, the patriarch of his family, whose only fear are the jackals that haunt his village at night with their howling. The only way to end the howling is by whistling, an act that only Abu Kamel’s wife can perform. The film chronicles the effects
of modernity, shame, war and economic instability on traditional Arabic life.
(Arabic w/English subtitles - 104 minutes)
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• Omar al-Mukhtar 1981
Dir: Moustapha Akkad
Starring: Anthony Quinn , Oliver Reed, and Sir John Gielgud
Film about Libya’s war for independence from Mussolini’s fascist occupation, and its leader Omar al-Mukhtar.
(English - 159 minutes)
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• Peace of Mind 1999 [***premier in Canada***]
Dir: Mark Landsman
Palestinian and Israeli teenagers are given video cameras to take back home for a year from a summer camp in Maine. The film is the result.
(English - 57 minutes)
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• Rivers of fire 1990
Dir: Paul Woolwich
This film highlights the little-known Middle Eastern conflict over a natural resource more valuable than oil--water. The views of all the countries involved are reflected in this fascinating tapestry. The interrelationships of basic need versus limited supply and increased use, with the inflammable political environment, equal a potentially volatile situation. Describes how Turkey and Israel currently control access in the region, and the effect of this on other countries--Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Iran
(English - 40 minutes)
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• Silences of the palace 1994
Dir: Moufida Tlatli
International Critics’ Award, Toronto International Film Festival, 1994
Camera d’Or, Cannes Film Festival 1994
Emotionally powerful look at the role of women in a changing world. Set in Tunisia in the 1950s, Tlatli tells the story of servant women living through the last days of French colonial rule, virtual prisoners in the palace of "the beys".
(Arabic and French w/ English subtitles - 127 minutes)
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• Some women of Marrakech 1976
Dir: Melissa Davies
Examines the effects of Muslim teachings and traditions on the lives of some Muslim women, centering on Aisha bint Mohammed of Marrakech, Morocco, and some of her friends. Includes scenes of a Muslim wedding and a public bath; filmed by an all-women crew.
(English - 56 minutes)
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• Umm Kulthum 1997
Dir: Michael Goldman
Nar: Omar al-Sharif
A portrait of the Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum who was born a peasant near the turn of the century and later became a symbol, first of the aspirations of her country, and then of the entire Arab world and who remains just as popular today.
Based on the book The voice of Egypt: Arabic song and Egyptian society in the twentieth century by Virginia Danielson.
(English - 67 minutes)
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• A Veiled revolution 1982
Dir: Marilyn Gaunt
Egypt was the first Arab country where women marched in political demonstrations and took off the veil; but today the educated granddaughters of these early Arab feminists are returning to traditional Islamic dress. In interviews, Egyptian women cite a resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism and a rejection of Western values as reasons.
(English - 27 minutes)
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• West Beirut 1998
Dir: Ziyad Doueiri
Starring: Rola Al Amin, Joseph Bou Nassar, Mohamad Chamas, Rami Doueiri, Lela Karam, Carmen Lebbos, Lialiane Nemri
Film chronicles the beginning of the war of partition that left the city of Beirut in ruins through the eyes of three pre-teens in the middle of trying to grow up.
(Arabic w/ English subtitles - 105 minutes)
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• Women of South Lebanon (Zahrat al Qandul) 1986
Dir: Mai Masri
Describes the role of women during the Israeli invasion of South Lebanon in 1982 and the subsequent occupation.
(Arabic w/English subtitles - 71 minutes)
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